Travelling drug lords are visiting Galway for a few days at a time and setting up virtual mobile cocaine and cannabis ‘shops’ out of local hotels, hostels and B&Bs.

The arrival of visiting drug dealers from other parts of Ireland, who use social media platforms to arrange their deals with local users, coincides with current volatility in Galway’s organised crime underworld.

Garda Chief Superintendent Gerard Roche said that travelling drug dealers were setting up base for two to three days in local tourism accommodation, and dealing drugs using Snapchat, WhatsApp and other social media apps.

Gardaí are monitoring social media as part of their operations to put the squeeze on drug dealers, he said.

Speaking at the Galway City Joint Policing Committee (JPC), Chief Supt Roche warned that simultaneously to visiting drug dealers, the local organised crime gangs “are quite volatile at the moment”.

And by volatile he said he meant that they are involved in attacks, they’re more violent, and are using petrol bombs and home-made pipe bombs against each other.

Chief Supt Roche said he was in the High Court last week where he listed off a number of issues relating to organised crime and drugs in Galway, which reminded him of the situation in Limerick City ten years ago.

He insisted Galway was still a safe place to live, work and visit and he was pumping resources into dealing with organised crime and in particular to taking down drug dealers.

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